vintage

A few things I have been thinking about lately:

• Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is an awesome song. It’s #217 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - a list which is, of course, biased toward American and British acts, left out various influential artists, and includes nothing before 1940, but still! - and it is truly excellent. Not only does Dolly deliver marvelously, but the very structure of the song lends itself to a sound of desperation. Oh my lordy, I have listened to it seven times today.
   

• I didn’t manage to catch on to hip hop well enough in 2007, but Aesop Rock’s None Shall Pass and Buck 65’s Situation are both absolutely amazing (and would have been on my top 10 list, had I been smart enough to hear them when they were released). The former features tunes with the likes of John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, and even has a song called “Bring Back Pluto” that begins And then there were eight, just like that. Um, awesome. Situation features Spanish guitar and quotes of the Clapping Song and Allen Ginsberg, as well as some seriously great singles like the percussion-filled “Dang”.
   

• The Futureheads‘ album This Is Not The World is awesome. I said I would review it and dropped the ball, so here it is in a few words: it is better than News & Tributes and almost as good as The Futureheads. The first single, “The Beginning of the Twist”, is classic catchy, spastic Futureheads fare; the production on everything is a little cleaner than their S/T, but thankfully not as slick as the unfortunate News work. I like it more and more every week. Well done, Sunderlanders. Now bring back Field Music!
   

• I am seeing Squeeze in 17 days. Not that I am particularly excited or anything.

Goodies:
Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass
The Futureheads, The Beginning of the Twist
Buck 65, The Outskirts

It’s finally here: Sloan’s release of a follow-up to the mammoth 30-track Never Hear the End of It (2006); clocking in at 37 minutes, Parallel Play’s thirteen tracks seem to fly by. More than on previous records, this really showcases Sloan’s four-songwriters modus operandi, and the result is an improbable stew of sounds that somehow still works. I suspect the brilliant production has something to do with it.

Guitarist Patrick Pentland leads the record off with “Believe in Me”, a breezy rocker with stunningly unremarkable lyrics. Though Pentland has never really been known for his earth-shattering wordplay, he usually hits the nail on the head with a solid song, and this is the track’s redeeming factor. It’s fun and singalong-able, but not that enduring; for now, I’ll certainly enjoy belting along with the chorus when no one’s listening. The organ is an enjoyable addition.

Pentland’s other tracks are slightly disappointing. “Burn For It” and “The Other Side,” both under three minutes, have their moments of glory but fail to really hit the mark - the kind of songs you don’t mind listening to but forget about when they’re over. The chorus of “Burn For It” - I wanna walk through fire, walk through the fire and burn for it - is catchy enough, though. I can’t say that I dislike his work on this album, but his songs don’t grab me. It is not Pentland’s worst showing by any means, but he is capable of quite a lot more than he shows us here.

Jay Ferguson (Rickenbacker, denim jacket) provides his usual dose of charming pop with his three offerings, all below the three-minute mark. The second track, “Cheap Champagne,” features some beautifully sly vocal harmony and guitarless verse sections. The shouty “ba ba da”s that lead it off are really too jarring, but they sound much better when they return later in the song, and the rest of the tune with its perfect feel more than makes up for that.

Ferguson’s others, “Witch’s Wand” and “If I Could Change Your Mind,” are no less delectable. The latter is reminiscent of ’60s Motown/Phil Spector, a sure way to my heart. “Witch’s Wand,” a nice little swingy tune, features a chorus so catchy it is maddening. Jay’s been on quite a roll the last few records, and this is no exception; sometimes his tunes can come across a bit formulaic, though his current fixation on making them super-short helps alleviate that, but he’s good at throwing in some handclaps and piano ornaments to get you back to feelin’ the love.

Sarcastic bassist Chris Murphy has, thankfully, improved upon his lyrics since Never Hear the End of It. While we are still unfortunately subjected to many verses about how his life is going lately, at least it isn’t “People Think They Know Me”. Here he weighs in with three pretty solid tunes, the best of which is probably “Living the Dream” - some more of “this is my life!”, but disguised in a happy little song with a cute riff and some delicious placement of D7s.

“I’m Not A Kid Anymore” features good solid power-chording, but is not the most remarkable of songs. The chorus is probably the most exciting feature, but overall it stands around the same place as “Believe In Me” (fun, but not all that enduring). “All I Am Is All You’re Not” is surprisingly understated, giving it a cool, playing-hard-to-get vibe. I’d been listening to All Things Must Pass the day before the record came out, and the lyrics constantly remind me of Harrison’s “I’d Have You Anytime”; lyrical allusions aside, though, it’s a good song. Nice to have you back, Chris.

And finally Andrew Scott (drums/guitar), who rambles all over the map on this album. “Emergency 911″ has a bit of a Stooges/Sex Pistols feel, wherein he yells about bullies and ambulances and firetrucks. The looseness and anger comes off well, but I wish he had left off the Henry Rollins ending part. The rest is a good shouty rant of a time.

“Down in the Basement” is a happy, rolling Bob Dylan blues number, featuring lots of good keys; Scott pulls off the blatant Dylan ripoff well. It’s definitely my favourite of Scott’s tracks on the record. “The Dogs” is slightly ponderous, but grows on you, and even features an Animal Farm reference (Four legs good and two legs bad keep chasing each other ’round my head). Brownie points.

Scott also provides the album’s closer, “Too Many,” a somewhat confusing reggae-influenced loose thing with tons of organ. It is a strange choice for a final track, but then none of the tracks stand out as the perfect closer. It has some great harmony and little nuances, and he shows us quite often that he’s not afraid to play with boundaries and different sounds at every opportunity.

Scott and Ferguson definitely carry this record to great heights; Murphy, though, is finally staging a comeback from the lyrical Someone to not watch The View with rock bottom. Pentland is coasting a little, but manages to redeem himself with excellent instrumentation and some undeniably good hooks. Parallel Play is a solid 9th record, and I can see it sitting in my CD player for a while - or it would, if Yep Roc would bother actually mailing it to me. Well, you can’t win ‘em all.

Listen: Cheap Champagne or Living the Dream

It has been a busy couple of weeks for new albums in Ruheeland. The Futureheads’ This Is Not the World, Sloan’s Parallel Play and Sam Roberts’ Love at the End of the World have all made it into my hands within the past little while. And now, I get to weigh in.

First up: Sam Roberts’ third full-length LP - well, and what a record it is, ladies and gents. I could just sum it up like so: I love it.

However, since I’m prone to rambling on and on for longer than is necessary, I’ll keep going.

I have all of Roberts’ recorded output so far: the aforementioned three LPs as well as a 2002 independently released EP. And I really like it all. My first experience was We Were Born in a Flame, about a year after its release, and things just went merrily along from there. I soon found out that Sam Roberts has a particular style and sound, and you can count on his records to contain that. Chemical City was one that I enjoyed, but never completely pulled me in; it sounded and felt like Sam, which I liked, but nothing really stood out about it when I compared it to We Were Born in a Flame. And so I continued on being an average fan.

Then Love at the End of the World hit, and things changed a bit.

This record is fantastic. It is hard to put your finger on exactly what is so great about it sometimes; it still sounds just like Sam Roberts, that breezy, jaunty pop-rock thing he’s got going on, but something about it is far more worthy of praise and repeated listening than Chemical City was. “Detroit ‘67″, the piano-filled summertime-rock closer, alone makes the record worth it.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time with it in the week (!) that I’ve had it, and it’s amazing to me how it holds up. The album is a joyful dash through green summer fields, yelling the lyrics along while the sun sets. I’ve been fixated on “Lions of the Kalahari,” which starts off somewhat sparse and somehow manages to be laid-back and driving at the same time (what?). “Fixed to Ruin” is a pretty catchy little number, and there’s no discounting the single “Them Kids,” featuring trademark simple-but-instantly-recognizable guitar work as the kickoff. Roberts is an excellent musician, and nothing is compromised here.

It’s hard to write this review, for some reason, because I just want to say “It’s awesome!” over and over (which, arguably, I already have) … so I will end with the affirmation that yes, Love at the End of the World might just be Sam Roberts’ best yet.

Have a listen: Detroit ‘67

This is kind of a hybrid concert-review/band-ramblings/album-review post. Hopefully it is not too confusing.

Toronto’s blues-rock-country-drunken-party band The Schomberg Fair hosted a marvelous CD release party this past Saturday at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, smack in the middle of a weekend transit strike that essentially paralyzed much of the city (and caused terrifying gridlock for those of us attempting to transport ourselves to the show via other peoples’ wheely machines). However, it was remarkably well-attended, and featured a host of their friends’ bands on the bill as well. To make things somewhat confusing and rather narcissistic, two of those - not one, but two - were bands that I am a member of, namely Entire Cities and The Cheap Speakers. So I will forego the review of those, although I would like to mention that I think both sets were a lot of fun, and playing at the Horseshow really rules.

The third band was, as the others, a veteran of the Rancho Relaxo’s Two Way Monologues showcase; they were Tin Bangs, and to be honest, I didn’t enjoy their set all that much. I will refrain from commenting too extensively on it, mostly because I was extremely tired (having played back-to-back sets) and somewhat impatient to see the Fair’s notably crazy, country-filled goodness. I also was somewhat bored by their stylings. They are, to their credit, great musicians; the set was really tight and really poppy, but there was something the same about all of it, which left me pretty cold. According to a friend, they covered the Hives and the Strokes during their stage time, but I will freely admit I had no idea (not because of the way they played, just because I wouldn’t recognize a Hives song if it was waving an airport pick-up sign).

And finally, the power trio, banjo-filled, and (this night) completely drunk Schomberg Fair. They make you want to break out the hooch and your cowboy hat and go find some handsome lads or pretty ladies on the dance floor. Let me tell you, if you have any opportunity to see them, you must.

In a nutshell, the Fair are like rock ‘n’ roll with a lot of extra roll - that good old-style twang, banjo, and some incredible bass vocals courtesy (of course) the bassist, Nate Sidon. They do covers of Townes Van Zandt (really well, too) and also of the favourite “Wade in the Water,” sung entirely two octaves below sea level by Sidon, who continuously draws shocked and disbelieving looks from listeners and audience members as he defies normal vocal capability. Seriously. It’s excellent.

Frontman, guitarist, banjo player and vocalist Matt Bahen is no second fiddle, though. Even while listening to him noodle around on guitar during a soundcheck, it’s clear he knows how to play the good ol’ blues, and play it well. His voice and instrumental stylings are a combination of Those Who Rock and Those Who Country (er, that was not a verb until just now), and together with spirited drummer Jake Stewart, often a vocal contributor as well - and an excellent one - the three make up one of the most talented good-time party bands to hit Toronto in a while.

Their new album Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground is a good embodiment of all of these characteristics. A few bonuses is that it’s a bit easier to hear all the crazy things that Bahen does on his various instruments than it is live (where often some of the subtleties get lost in the confusion), as well as to hear Sidon’s vocal-cord rumblings for mostly the same reasons. The songs are well-produced and have just enough twang to appeal to those who enjoy, but not excessive enough to repel those who are wary of it - a pretty awesome feat, honestly.

The one thing I wish it had a little more of was their on-stage exuberance, although much of it is still present in all facets of the recording. Perhaps a little more restraint on that is good, since the further you go into “exuberance” the further you inevitably go into “sloppiness” after a certain while. Still, that doesn’t take away from what is definitely a contender for my list of best albums this year (I was just about to enumerate some of the other contenders, and then realised that would probably be a silly idea).

Conveniently, the Fair are featured today as CBC Radio 3’s Track of the Day with the title song from said new record, so do yourself a favour and go check it out right here.

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On a totally unrelated and fairly gratuitous note, I am really obsessed with the following albums lately: Murmur, Ball, Challengers, Heretic Pride, and It’s Never Been Like That. (If Wikipedia had music samples every other website would be DESTROYED FOREVER.)

Wow, my friends, it has been too long. Blame it on the black hole they label “school”; now that that’s out of the way, we’re back in business here. Shows to review! Artists to talk about! So much music.

I recently picked up Jason Collett’s latest LP Here’s to Being Here (it’s on marble pink vinyl!), which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying. I don’t know that there’s any song quite as catchy as “I’ll Bring the Sun” (from Idols of Exile), but “Papercut Hearts” is cute and a really good time, and “Roll On Oblivion” is a well-chosen way to open the record. The groovy “Charlyn, Angel of Kensington” is a slightly sultry, funky, fun song that I’ve been pretty into since getting the album, and Collett’s voice on this and a few others sounds uncannily like that of Peter Elkas. Funny, as the two are actually on tour together, covering both Canada and the United States in a giant sweep; clearly a well-matched pair.

I also got the newest Mountain Goats album, Heretic Pride (also on vinyl, but unfortunately, not coloured). Right away, Darnielle’s voice seems remarkably more nasal than on previous records, hitting its peak on the title track with its jerky lyric; I’ll have to admit, that track bothers me a bit stylistically, but most everything else seems to make up for it. Songs like the slightly ethereal, muted “Sept 15, 1983,” for example - perfectly arranged and performed, and probably among my favourites. It’s true, the titles seem to be more reminiscent of Zappa than Darnielle sometimes (”How to Embrace a Swamp Creature,” “In the Craters on the Moon”) , and I have yet to find songs that I love as much as I do those on We Shall All Be Healed, but like with most Mountain Goats albums, I think it’s a grower.

I have to say, too, that I recently discovered Phoenix’s album It’s Never Been Like That, and I am hooked. Prior to this musical epiphany, the only track of theirs I was familiar with was the frustratingly catchy “Too Young,” from 2000’s United (#6 on Jay Ferguson’s 10 perfect pop songs!). I loved it, but the rest of the album left me cold. Somehow, It’s Never Been Like That just passed me by, and I’m only waking up to it now. I can’t stop listening to “Consolation Prizes,” which is singalongable, catchy, energetic, and slightly electronic-sounding - in other words, trademark Phoenix. Once you hear it once, you can’t stop. Have a listen - but don’t say you weren’t warned!

Coming up: Brent Randall & His Pinecones, the Weather Station, and more. (Side note: My band, Entire Cities, are releasing a CD tomorrow! Reviews of the other bands shall follow.)

OK, to get this whole show on the road, I’m reposting my top albums of 2007 (originally posted at my old haunt, the Rblog). With added “honourable mentions,” because I’ve already discovered more stuff I liked. The year just isn’t long enough!

10. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
Island. March 13 (USA)

(This might be fudging a little, since Back to Black was released in the UK in late 2006, but didn’t make it across the pond until this year. I hope you’ll forgive me.) This album surprised me; all the hype, the screaming fangirls, and Winehouse’s tabloid fodder did not an interested Ruhee make, but when I finally listened, it was nothing like I expected. Instead of trashy dance-pop R&B, Winehouse has crafted a vintage soul album with serious throwbacks to Motown, tied together with one remarkable set of pipes. Whether or not this album is your cup of tea, there is no denying the girl can sing. Some of the songs are a little take-or-leave, but “Rehab” … oh man. A catchier single there never was. This album is a bit of a guilty pleasure sometimes, but it is a good one.

09. Spiral Beach, Ball
Sparks. October 16

I’ve been waffling back and forth on this band for a while. I saw them open for Sloan twice near the beginning of this year; one of the shows was really excellent and the other left me fairly ambivalent. Their first album, self-titled, was good in places and a little grating in others, and I expected the same from Ball when it was released this fall. However, it was definitely not so. This record is full of spacey dance-rock numbers, all short and flashy, and much tighter than the last album. “Made of Stone” sounds a thousand times better than it did live, months before this record hit the shelves, and “Kind of Beast” and “We Saw Ghosts” are particularly enjoyable. Spiral Beach has their own distinctive sound (love it or hate it), and they’re becoming more comfortable with it here. At this rate, their third album will be a real treat.

08. The Acorn, Glory Hope Mountain
Paper Bag. October 1

This is another album I’m glad I managed to hear before the year was out, or my list of “belated top albums of the year” would have been remarkably long. The Acorn are a band that are certainly well rooted in folk and country, but who put a remarkably fresh spin on the whole package. Glory Hope Mountain is very similar to Cuff the Duke, but in a less rock, more laid-back sort of way; particular favourites are “Oh Napoleon” and “Low Gravity,” the former quiet and sweeping, the latter energetic and danceable. This is a band who know what they want and how to go about creating it, and the end result is equal parts hoedown and slow dance.

07. Cuff the Duke, Sidelines of the City
Hardwood. October 23

Speaking of Cuff the Duke (I didn’t do that on purpose, I promise!) … the third full-length album from Ontario country-rock favourites is just what we were hoping for. The album is very cohesive and the songwriting strong, although sometimes the lyrics feel a little contrived, namely “Long Road”. Standout tracks include “Failure to Some” (a track I had no idea was 7 minutes long until I looked at it in my iTunes just now!), which features a now-classic Cuff the Duke build-up ending; “If I Live Or If I Die,” which has shades of BRMC’s “Shuffle Your Feet”; and the closing track, “Confessions from a Parkdale Basement”. There are numerous references to suburbs where members of the band grew up (such as in “Rossland Square”) and to Toronto itself, which makes the entire album feel rooted somewhere, like it belongs somewhere. I’m not sure if I would say it’s their best album, but it is a solid one that I’ll be listening to for a while.

06. Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars
Geffen. May 15

I hadn’t heard a single track off this album until I saw Rufus perform a large handful of them live in July. Wearing lederhosen. If ever there was a way to sell a Rufus album, that was it. Wainwright’s newest effort is a complex, beautifully-executed piece of work, much of it about traveling, different cities, and being discontent with staying in one place. That theme lends a whole lot of interest to the record, since it does much the same thing musically; it never stays in one place very long, preferring to veer around and tell stories in different ways, although never going too far from Wainwright’s familiar lilting style. Particular favourites: “Going to A Town” (especially the cheeky I’m so tired of you, America), “Sanssouci,” and the title track. This album makes me want to just hop on an airplane and tour the world with not much except a change of clothes, a camera and some music for the road.

05. Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
Bumstead. July 24

A messy-haired, power pop foursome from the East Coast … no, there were no new Sloan records this year; instead, Joel Plaskett protégés Two Hours Traffic’s brand new full length, full of smiles and singalongs. There are no skipable tracks on this album, although their style is streamlined enough that they all bleed together a little. The band is extremely tight, live and on record, and their joyful brand of pop-rock is pretty infectious. Little Jabs is full of standout tracks, including the single “Stuck for the Summer”, “Nighthawks”, and “Jezebel,” although if the list went on long enough it would include the whole record. Sometimes the lyrics get a little too cutesy, but overall, this is an excellent album from a band I’m sure we will be hearing from often in the new year.

04. Nathan, Key Principles
Nettwerk. March 20

Nathan are such darlings. This album is cute and folky and full of really well written songs that get stuck in your head, all the time, with a delicious amount of banjo (courtesy Shelley Marshall). One thing they are sure not to do, though, is get too stuck in the folk mentality; there is plenty of pop here, with horns and handclaps everywhere you turn, and it balances everything out perfectly. Songs like “The Wind” and “Terrible Way to See Omaha” conjure up images of the sweeping prairie, while “Daffodils” is one of those that would make little toddlers bop around in the living room. Key Principles is sunny and warm on first listen, but its solid songwriting and excellent vocals (Keri Latimer, with Marshall) make it complex enough to not get tossed by the wayside. It’s an album that feels like home, down to the hand-stitched album art; listening to it is akin to curling up with hot chocolate in your favourite blanket and watching the clouds go by.

03. The New Pornographers, Challengers
Matador. August 21

You might remember a review of this I did earlier, which ended up fairly lukewarm. And it’s true, Challengers is the most mellow and cohesive of all of the Pornographers’ albums, but the more I listened to it throughout the rest of the year, the more I grew to love it. My favourite tracks still remain the first two (”My Rights Versus Yours”, which was the first single, I believe, and “All the Old Showstoppers”), but there’s a lot of hidden goodness after that. “Adventures in Solitude” is extremely sparse and perfect, and “Entering White Cecilia” is quirky and fun. Challengers is nothing like Mass Romantic’s craziness, where it seems they tried to fit in as much as possible; here, they have grown up a little and focused on one direction. That’s not to say it’s not a classic New Pornos album, because it is. There’s still the weird Dan Bejar material, the singalongs, and the remarkable amount of melodica-fueled riffs; they’ve just learned to channel it a little more, and out of that comes a commendably mature but totally enjoyable record. There’s not much they’ve done that I don’t like, and that trend still continues.

02. Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock
Songs for the Gang. April 17

This is listed as #2, but for all intents and purposes, the top two albums of this year are a tie. And so, the first top album of 2007: Ashtray Rock, the Joel Plaskett Emergency’s third effort (Plaskett’s fifth as a solo artist post-Hermit). It would be impossible to say everything about this album in a paragraph, but Ross has conveniently done most of the talking about it; my two cents, though, would include praising the excellent transitions between songs - it makes you want to always listen to the whole thing, top to bottom, which is quite a feat - and the repetition of ideas throughout (I like the instrumentals, for example). And lately, I’d have to argue that one of the best moments of the record is in fact “The Instrumental,” complete with the letter, and the roller coaster it takes you through in just three minutes - a concise summary of the entire story of Ashtray Rock with almost no words at all.
     Plaskett’s crafting of a ‘concept album’ has worked wonderfully here, and by the end of Ashtray you become completely attached to the characters whose stories he tells. I loved the record from the get-go, but the more I listen to it, the more I become attached - even, yes, to “Fashionable People”, which I think is a hilarious and quirky addition to the otherwise more streamlined album. Plaskett is never afraid to do something a little silly when he feels like it, and dammit, he will; and from falsetto to “Face of the Earth,” the end result is one of his most enjoyable albums yet.

01. Field Music, Tones of Town
Memphis. January 22

That’s right. An album released just barely three weeks into the new year is topping my list. Unheard of, in the short term memory world of music blogging and downloaders, but not impossible … and this year, the honour goes to a band hailing from Sunderland, England, on their sophomore release that really sounds like nothing else I’ve ever run into. Certainly comparisons can be drawn to the Futureheads (unsurprising, as they have shared members) - think that sound, but brighter, cleaner, and as tight and quirky as can be. Field Music are, underneath, really prog-rockers, but not in the sense of Rush or Floyd; they do rip off Yes a lot, though, and their sound is particularly poppy. Tones of Town is an incredibly well-crafted record that flows together in a particularly satisfying way. “Give It Lose It Take It”, the opening track, features an excellent use of open strings; “Working to Work,” the first track that I heard from the album, is maddeningly catchy (I’m serious; I think it’s been stuck in my head since April).
     My favourite track, though, is the final one, “She Can Do What She Wants”. Meter changes, possibilities for air-drumming, and an excellent opportunity to sing along in earnest English falsetto. There’s not much better. Tones of Town is, as far as I’m concerned, the best record to come out of 2007 (or tied for it, anyway), and one that will stand up for a long time to come. It’s tight, it’s layered, it’s hard to pin down completely; Field Music, if they come back from their projected hiatus, is going to have a hell of a time following this act.

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Albums I wish I had heard in time for this list
Thurston Moore, Trees Outside The Academy
The Bad Plus, Prog
Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Caribou, Andorra

Albums I wish I liked a little better
Small Sins, Mood Swings
Nick Lowe, At My Age
Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full
Rush, Snakes and Arrows